RCAF aircraft on slipway, Cormorant Lake, Manitoba, 1925
Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada
Following the war, the Air Board was established by the Canadian government to regulate and control all aeronautical activity in Canada. Originally, the Air Board was just going to be a regulator organization, but the British government gave Canada more than 100 surplus aircraft and 12 ex-US Navy Curtiss HS-2L flying boats were abandoned in Nova Scotia, the Air Board established the civilian Flying Operations Branch (flying aircraft in support of government departments) and the Canadian Air Force, which was largely a paper organization with limited personal and one base at Camp Borden.
The Air Board established several aerodromes and seaplane bases across Canada to support its work for government departments, including forestry patrols, aerial mapping and many other first uses of aircraft in Canada.
Unfortunately, no Federal government support was provided to develop the civil aviation industry in Canada during the early 1920s while many other nations were supporting the development of airfields, air mail services and aircraft manufacturers.
This meant that commercial aviation in Canada developed in the 1920s largely in support of companies and organizations working in the North such as the mining industry where the use of an aircraft could cut trips that used to take days, weeks and even months to complete by historic methods to hours.
A major turning point came in 1926-1927 when the Red Lake Gold Rush in northern Ontario stimulated a major demand for aviation and the Department of Defence decided to subsidize the establishment of flying clubs.
When the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was established in 1924, it took over the Civil Government Air Operations (CGAO) which accounted for the majority of RCAF flying into the 1930s utilizing waterborne aircraft to map the country and fly regular forest fire patrols.
As tensions increased in Europe through the mid-1930s, the Federal government increased the RCAF budget for military training.
– Kenneth Swartz
Today, students from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, Queens University, McMaster University, York University and the University of Toronto are working together on collaborative DAIR projects, developing skills and helping to build an even stronger aerospace industry for Ontario and Canada.